ROME, AUGUST 29 (ZENIT.org)

    Salvatore Mancuso, director of the Institute of Gynecology of the Catholic University of Rome, said that cloning will not be necessary for medicine, because in the "not too distant future, doctors will be able to 'reconstruct' replacement organs without the need to take recourse to this technique. It will be sufficient to use human stem cells present in the placenta or the umbilical cord at the moment of birth."

    "The practice of cloning can be overcomeed by using adult stem cells. These are found in great quantities in the umbilical cord and the placenta. Consequently, if these cells are collected systematically and stored, prolonged waiting for the availability of therapeutic instruments will not be necessary in the future," the scientist explained during the 18th International Congress of the Transplants Society, which is being held in Rome from August 26 to September 1.

    Mancuso told his colleagues from around the world that "an effort would be made to apply techniques already used in tumor therapy, when chemotherapy is intensified. With 'criopreserved' cells, which are frozen before beginning the intensification of therapy, one can then 'clone' the patients' marrow with tissues of their own organisms."

    This technique could offer new elements for reflection in the debate that broke out following the British government's approval of programs for cloning human embryos for therapeutic objectives, Professor Mancuso explained.

    This argument will be debated in a congress on "Early Human Life," which Professor Mancuso and others are organizing at the Catholic University of Rome from September 6-8, in the context of activities scheduled for the University Professors' Jubilee. ZE00082908

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